THE CANCER CARE CRISIS IN VIRGINIA

Cancer is a matter of life and death. Anthem's decision to leave the
individual health insurance market in Virginia
— abandoning around 200,000 customers — is putting peoples' lives at
risk. In the vacuum left by Anthem, Cigna is the only provider left in
many parts of the state. Yet Cigna's individual plan, Cigna Connect,
does not even offer access to Inova, which in many areas is the main
hospital system and best option, or only option, for cancer care.

As one of the largest providers of health insurance in the
nation, one would think Anthem would take its responsibility to the
lives of its customers seriously. This is not the case. After
the Republicans made repeated attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act
(ACA), the health insurance market was shaken by uncertainty. What made
things even worse was President Donald Trump's promise to end cost
sharing subsidies, and the shortening of the health insurance enrollment
period to a mere six weeks. Anthem's response to this uncertainty was
to pull out of several states around the nation, including Virginia.
Their exit was so hasty, many customers never even received an official
notification of their departure. Anthem also decided to leave before
realizing they'd be abandoning some areas to no providers at all. They
have since rescinded that decision and offer care in areas where they
are the sole provider.

But they have still abandoned
200,000 customers when this wasn't necessary. Carefirst faced the same
problems they did and chose to stay.

Anthem has had a history of recklessness and incompetence.
In 2015, they allowed hackers to steal the personal information and
patient IDs of 80 million of their customers. And they completely
blundered their merger with Cigna.

Anthem's decision to pull out of the state of Virginia has
severed severed cancer patients from their regular doctors. Many cancer
patients can no longer even receive care at the main hospitals in their
areas, or the Inova health system, which offers the top cancer care in
the state.

A particularly distressing situation is that of 4-year-old cancer patient Colette Briggs.
Her parents can no longer buy an Affordable Care Act plan to cover her
hospital care. For half her young life, she has depended upon
chemotherapy treatments to keep her alive. Yet now the health insurance
plans available to the Briggs family on the individual marketplace do
not cover Inova Fairfax Hospital where Colette receives spinal tap chemo
and emergency care. For years, the Briggs family living in Loudoun
County Virginia purchased insurance from Anthem, but this year this is
no longer an option.

The only insurance company available to Colette's self-employed
father is the Cigna Connect policy for individuals, but this policy does
not cover Fairfax Hospital or the entire Inova health system. The
Fairfax Hospital is the only local hospital with a dedicated pediatric
cancer unit, a hospital where Colette has been a patient for more than
two years.

According to Inova President and COO Mark Stauder, there is
some hope that Cigna will add Inova to its list of in-network providers
for the exchange plans. Inova and Cigna do have managed care
agreements for other Cigna plans, but the hospital network “has not been
offered” a contract for the exchange coverage.

“We have had conversations throughout the year,” Stauder said. “We’ve had many, many conversations.”

While those talks have failed to generate a deal, more meetings are
planned, he said. And Stauder said input from Cigna’s customers or
prospective customers could help advance the negotiations.

Cigna must now fill in the vacuum left by Anthem. They must offer
plans on the individual health insurance market that will provide
patients with service at the Inova hospital system. Peoples' lives are
at stake.